We people of a certain age grew up watching “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”, a documentary television series about the world beneath the waves. At some point we were introduced to the voice and calls of the humpback and other whales. You can listen to a sample here. To me the calls always sounded melancholy – and in a way, they were. By-in-large, the calls are done almost exclusively by males and are part of a mating ritual. These songs are loud and carry great distances in the ocean. Research underwater microphones have been recording them for years. Recently, researchers have noted that there are noticeably few whale songs. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that because of the end of commercial whaling, the whale population has been restored to almost near pre-whaling population levels. Apparently that has increased the “dating pool.” Where before 2 in 10 males where actively “cruising” the oceans looking for mates, now it is only 1 in 10.

I thought you’d want to know.